Thursday, October 6, 2016

Having recently finished binge-watching the latest season of Once Upon a Time--crying and laughing and trying not to think too hard about the plot--I was struck by one thing: their treatment of Megara was downright appalling.

Megara is a lovely, sassy desert flower and should be respected in all iterations. They turned her into a mewling, quivering damsel who gets saved by not one, but three heroes. Ugh.

She doesn’t take anybody’s nonsense, she takes care of herself, and she does it all with a heaping helping of good old-fashioned sass. Which is all just intensified due to her proximity to the literally flaming Hades and the posse of sassy background singers. It’s magical.

2. She cares deeply for people.

She ended up in service to Hades because she traded her soul to bring someone she loved back from the dead. He betrayed her--like, big time--and yet she still came to care for Hercules. I’d bet she even has a teeny-tiny soft spot for Hades. That amount of time spent with someone will do that to you. Just ask Belle.

She tries to fight the centaur alone, even after being offered help. She stands up to Hades. She holds her own over and over and over again. She doesn’t need nobody’s help, and gosh darn it she’s going to prove it. And she does, too.

All the other Disney princesses are over here with their huge romantic, heart-sighing, prince-dancing songs, telling little girls everywhere that they’ll only be happy once they have a perfect man and the perfect hair to go with it. Seriously, though. Snow White: “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Sleeping Beauty: “Once Upon a Dream.” Cinderella: “So This Is Love.” Even Rapunzel, the modern-day, adventurous, bordering-on-feminist princess, falls prey to this with “I See the Light.” But then there’s Meg.

I won’t say I’m in love. It’s upbeat, it’s sassy, and it’s fiercely independent. And even though she does fall in love, she does it very much on her own terms.

So you go, Meg. Keep that sass going strong, despite what Once Upon a Time tried to do to you.

Meg is probably my favorite Disney heroine and it's a little sad that she's not included as a *technical* Disney princess. But I guess she's just too good to be a princess. ;)

Also, I personally don't like what Once Upon a Time does to a lot of its characters. Also the plot - I can't handle the plot - i mean, do they just make it up as they go or is there actually some kind of structured timeline here?